Battle Subway Discussion & Ranking Hall~ Now With Singles Team Building Guide!

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I had put my White version down months ago to focus on other games, but with nothing to play, I realized I needed to get a White Trainer Card for it, and I only had done two of the five requirements, finishing the National Pokedex (648/649) and beating the Elite Four. So I figured the Battle Subway would be next, as all I needed was a 49 win streak on the Battle Subway doubles line, I had done the singles line before. Doubles had been giving me trouble for a long time, because there is such a different style of play required in doubles that I am not used to, so I put together a proper team, and managed to win 48 in a row. Here's what happened with I met Emmet.

Scizor uses Bullet Punch to KO Eelektross, and Thundurus uses Thunder to KO Chandelure, it was a critical hit, though I'm not sure Chandelure would have survived a non crit Thunder.

44-30008-43386 is the number of the Battle Video if you're interested, and the link above leads to a detailed version of the team.

I'll probably just leave it at 49 wins for now though, because I don't need any more BP, I bought all the TMs, have all the items, and don't need the Vitamins with 118 BP to spare, but also because I mostly did this for the trainer card, if I was to do the Battle Subway again, it would definitely be singles rather than doubles.

So I attempte the Super Single Line once long ago in Black, and lost on Battle 48 due to not having a Dragon counter. I gave it another run with a new team here in Black 2, and I've pulled off a streak of 116 wins! I actually decided to go with the Truant Durant strategy, but that actually led to a loss the first time on battle 35 due to Quick Claw from a Dragonite, but anyway, now for the team itself. And of course, the proof. Spoiler:- Picture Proof:

Obviously, this guy led the team for me. Timd with perfect Speed IV and maximum Speed investment meant I'd outspeed anything, though I don't know what was the maximum investment needed anyway. Not like it needed anything more, but the strategy was as simple as it gets. Entrainment to turn the opponent's ability into Truant, and then switch to Haxorus or Gyarados so they could set up and sweep. This strategy worked on anything that didn't know Fake Out, but aside from that, all I had to look out for were potential Explosions, U-Turn/Volt Switch, and anything that happened to use Protect. In the even of one of these moves being used, I had X-Scissor/Iron Head for STAB, and Superpower for coverage, but that was mainly filler since Durant rarely needed to fight, if at all.

My primary sweeper. I chose him over Garchomp because of better attack and Dragon Dance, which helps with Scarfed Guillotine Pinser and the like. Anything that Durant could get with Entrainment became set-up bait for Haxorus, Protecting on turns the opponent could attack an Dragon Dancing on the other turns until stats were good enough for a sweep. Sash is in case of Quick Claw or Brightpowder hax, as well as opposing Sturdy users and opposing Sash users. Simple enough, with Dragon Claw being used over Outrage so that I wouldn't be locked into it if a Steel type comes out. And with all these boosts, Dragon Claw was usually enough. Earthquake is for the Steels, though if it was possible, I would have gone with Fire Punch for Skarmory, and Gyarados also packs Earthquake. Haxorus definitely got more use of the two sweepers, though.

Typical sweeping Gyarados, with Substitute and Leftovers to make for a pseudo-bulky set-up. If the opponent didn't pack a rock or electric move, Gyarados came in and could set up exceptionally well on physical attackers due to Intimidate. Substitute was used over Protect to make use of Leftovers, and if set up, was more useful to keep Gyarados healthy against the rest of the opponent's Pokemon if hax were to interfere. It also protected him from status, which is a plus. Waterfall is basic STAB, hitting most things hard, and Earthquake was used over Ice Fang or Stone Edge to hit other Water types, and in the Subway, one miss from Stone Edge could mean the end for me. Naive Nature was an oversight on my part, but it was good enough to run this strategy. It is also the most likely cause of my loss, though.

The Record Killer:
So battle 117, against Pokemon Breeder Manford. He sent out a Zoroark disguised as Magmortar, so I was expecting Durant to go down after using Entrainment. (Fun Fact: using Entrainment on a disguised Zoroark will still have the ability pop-up for its ability retain the name of the Pokemon it was disguised as. So in this case, even after Zoroark was revealed, it said "Magmortar's Truant.") Of course, Zoroark used Focus Blast and KO'ed it. My next move likely what caused my loss. Instead of taking out Haxorus, I took out Gyarados and set up accordingly with Substitute and Dragon Dance. I failed to make sure a Sub was set up before sweeping, since I figured I had nothing to worry about. After taking out Zoroark, he sent out Glaceon over Magmortar, unsurprisingly, so I proceeded to use Watefall. At this moment, Brightpowder hax kicks in and Waterfall misses, only for Glaceon to OHKO back with Blizzard. I then send out my final Pokemon, Haxorus, and think that maybe I can win still if I stall out Blizzard with Protect. This succeeds, but only because of Focus Sash and a luck miss which allowed me to get one Dragon Dance in. This wasn't enough to KO Glaceon, though, and so Glaceon managed to KO back with Shadow Ball.

Final Thoughts:
Really, my loss came because I didn't use Haxorus here to set up like I should have. Focus Sash would have saved me if Brightpowder hax kicked in, assuming it would hit back with Blizzard, and Magmortar would have gone down from there. Alternatively, if I had a Sub up when Glaceon came out, I may have been able to afford the miss there. All and all, it was a fun run, and I even got the Trophy for beating Ingo and even the Lansat Berry (not to mention a ton of BP). Not sure if this strategy is worthy enough of being on the record rankings, but 116 is a new record in my book, so I'm satisfied.

I’m not sure if anybody cares about this thread anymore as the last post is from 2 months ago, I guess most people are focused on X&Y now, but I got a record in the Subway that I wanted to share.

Spoiler:- Picture proof:

This is for White, Super Doubles.

Credit for the team and strategy goes to R Inanimate from Smogon. His original team can be found here. I just copied it and made my own version with some changes. Though I didn’t get anywhere near as far as he did…

Sets up rain and does damage. Surf is the main move, Ice Beam for things like Dragons or Grass-types. The last two moves aren't used as often but they can help sometimes. Psychic can be useful for Poison/Fighting-types and it can OHKO Toxicroak that might be dangerous for Ludicolo. The original moveset by R Inanimate has Hypnosis, but I didn’t want to use it since a move with 60% accuracy feels too unreliable in the Subway. HP Grass is mostly for opposing Water-types, though I rarely use it as it isn’t very strong. I originally used another Politoed before this one that had HP Electric instead, but I stopped using it since it failed at even 2HKOing a Gyarados once. HP Grass feels more useful since it can hit Water/Rock or Water/Ground Pokemon which there are more of. A Timid nature combined with max Speed EVs and the highest IV as well as a Choice Scarf allows it to outrun Pokemon with a base Speed of 130.

Main sweeper of the team, the given EVs let it outrun everything in the Subway during rain except for some opposing Swift Swimmers and a couple of Scarfed Pokemon. Absorb Bulb to raise its SAtk from a Surf from Politoed. Fake Out for things that might cause trouble. It also has a max Attack IV to do the most possible damage with Fake Out although I guess this doesn't really matter.

Gastrodon is a beast. With Storm Drain, it can absorb Surfs from Politoed and Ludicolo to raise its SAtk to unreal levels. It is fun to watch it overpower things like Blissey and Cresselia when the boosts starts to rack up. The moves are pretty standard, three attacking moves and Protect. It has a 0 IV in Speed to counter Trick Room teams easily as it outruns most of the Subway during Trick Room. A Rindo Berry allows it to survive some Grass moves.

Not sure what to say here. Scizor with three standard moves and Protect if it’s teamed up with one of the others are using Surf. The Life Orb makes it stronger and the HP loss is usually not a problem. The Speed EVs allow it to outrun a lot of important Pokemon while it is still reasonably fast against Trick Room teams.

The opponent is a scientist who leads with Escavalier and Mr. Mime. This is uncomfortable for me as the Mr. Mime is the Dual Screen set with a Light Clay and the Escavalier is the Custap set which also knows Megahorn that is dangerous for Ludicolo. I know that I have to use Fake Out on one of them, and decides to go for the Mime. I do so and use Surf with Politoed, this puts the Mr. Mime at just below 50% and the Escavalier just above. Mr. Mime flinches, Escavalier uses Megahorn which KO’s Ludicolo.

This is a bad situation for me as I went to 3-4 in the first turn. I bring out Gastrodon. Politoed uses Surf which kills Mr. Mime and puts Escavalier in Custap Range, it uses Swagger on Gastrodon which hurts itself in confusion instead of using Earth Power to kill of the opponent. The opponent sends out Electrode which is really bad as it is faster than Politoed and knows Thunder.

Next turn, Escavalier’s Custap Berry activates as expected, I really wanted to prevent this. It uses Megahorn on Gastrodon which barely survives. Electrode uses Light Screen, Politoed uses Surf which finally defeats Escavalier and Electrode is left with more than 50%. Gastrodon hits itself in confusion and dies, it should otherwise have used Earth Power on Electrode. I send out Scizor, the opponent sends out Altaria.

This is a very bad situation as Politoed is locked into Surf which won’t be effective against Altaria and will kill Scizor rather quickly. I go for Protect with Scizor to save it for at least one turn, Electrode is faster than Politoed and uses Thunder, which it barely survives. Politoed uses Surf which puts Electrode in the red and barely scratches Altaria. Altaria uses Flamethrower on Scizor which does nothing due to Protect.

I decide to put priority on killing Electrode here, which was probably a bad idea. Scizor uses Bullet Punch which defeats Electrode, Politoed uses Surf which does little to Altaria and Scizor is left with about 1/3 of its full HP. Altaria uses Dragon Pulse on Politoed which kills it. At this point I’m so extremely screwed that it’s just brutal. I have no chance of winning unless a miracle happens. Scizor uses Bullet Punch on Altaria which does more than half of its current HP, it restores with Sitrus Berry and uses Flamethrower which kills Scizor.

I guess I would have won this battle if things had gone differently. If I had used Fake Out on Escavalier on the first turn instead of Mr. Mime, I might have won. Or if Gastrodon had used Protect on the first turn instead of trying to kill Escavalier with Earth Power, or if it hadn’t hit itself in confusion these two turns.